Recently a book, written by Timoshenko on the Sveshnikov Sicilian, was published in Russia. From all we know, it is a decent book by a real expert on the opening. We do not want to publish it in English, as we have our own book by Kotronias, which is really excellent.
But Russian Chess House decided that this Timoshenko book would fit in well with their version of the Grandmaster Repertoire series, where they have previously published some of our QC books. To do this, they took a version of the cover we had given them for a different book, and then their cover artist lifted the chessboard photo off our book on the Sveshnikov Sicilian and used it on their own cover.
Their thinking was: this will cause no damage to Quality Chess and be good for Russian Chess House.
Our thinking is that:
a) They did not ask us, which is a big transgression. And we would have said no.
b) It does reflect on Quality Chess, as people will naturally tie this book to our brand. This is called ‘trading off’.
If we wanted to do it, we could license our brand in Russia and elsewhere, but it also means that some people will hold us responsible for the quality of the Timoshenko book and if it is not good, they will think worse of our books. This might not be a case with this book, we don’t know for sure to be honest, but clearly this is a choice we want to make!
Similarly, we believe in Russian Chess House’s series there is a book by Scherbakov on ‘The Triangle System’ that looks like a Quality Chess book, but is nothing to do with us.
We have talked to Russian Chess House and they are apologetic. Things have been sorted out.
We share this with you for a few reasons:
a) We want you to know that this book has nothing to do with us and will not be published by us.
b) Please think about the idea of a victimless crime. There is not really any such thing. Respect copyright, especially ours!
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